Explorations of Disney's Haunted Mansion. Ruminations and revelations concerning the history and artistry of the Disney parks' richest and most eccentric masterpiece. Based on the MiceChat discussion board phenomenon, "Long-Forgotten Haunted Mansion Effect."

Things You're Just Supposed to Know

Most of the time, Long-Forgotten assumes that readers are already familiar with basic facts

about the Haunted Mansion. If you wanna keep up with the big boys, I suggest you check out

first of all the website, Doombuggies.com. After that, the best place to go is Jason Surrell's book,

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

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You know, it took five years and nine months for Long-Forgotten to chalk up a million views. It's only taken one year and ten months to get to two million, despite the fact that the blog sometimes lies dormant for lengthy stretches, silent and still as a cemetery. But as we know, at the Mansion no cemetery remains quiet for very long. Many thanks to all readers, commenters, and linkers out there. You make this thing worth doing.

Okay, enough mush. It's an established tradition at LF to celebrate our milestones and anniversaries with odds and ends of Mansionalia, and you may rest in peace, knowing that this post will be no exception.

Today we are going to look at more graveyards, believe it or not. Some are lost, some not. In the last post we took a little vacation on Tom Sawyer Island and learned about the three burial grounds that once were there. Since then I have been alerted to another long forgotten Frontierland cemetery (noticed by TokyoMagic! in a photo published at Gorillas Don't Blog last September and brought to my attention by Chuck in the comments on our previous post). I figure it kinda sorta belongs in the same file as the three on TSI, so we'll take a quick look at it—an excursus on an excursus, if you will—and then it's back to the Mansion, where we belong. There, we'll turn the spotlight upon yet another lost graveyard, and after that we'll provide updates about various doings in one of the current graveyards. I haven't seen anywhere an adequate discussion of the latter items, so as usual it falls to us at Long Forgotten to make good the deficit.

The Churchyard of Rainbow Ridge

You know about Rainbow Ridge, right? That's the quaint little town that formed the backdrop for the old Mine Train through Nature's Wonderland and which was partially salvaged in order to continue service as part of the Thunder Mountain RR backdrop. What you may not know is that the original Rainbow Ridge went through two distinct phases. (You can find an in-depth discussion HERE.) The miniature town was built in 1956, when the Mine Train opened. The Pack Mules, Stagecoach, and Conestoga Wagons all boarded in an area to the left of the Mine Train and in front of the tracks:

When the Stagecoach and Wagons attractions were axed, this whole area was heavily remodeled, including some major reshuffling of Rainbow Ridge, adding new buildings on the left side and moving existing buildings around. That took place late in 1959.

As the foliage grew, the cemetery was obscured more and more, and during the 1959 remodel the "lonely little church on the hill" became an urban house of worship, with houses next to it and fencing suggesting a road going in front of it. The graveyard was gone, and eventually it was (need we say it?) long forgotten.

Okay, back to the HM. There is nothing particularly mysterious about this item, but more than 17 years have elapsed, and it's probable that most people have forgotten it ever existed. How many of you knew that there was for a short time a graveyard in the Mansion's front yard?

In 2000 they had a contest, with 30 winners selected to enjoy a dinner inside the Haunted Mansion itself on October 25th. In addition, temporary plywood tombstones were created with the names of the winners on them, complete with the usual "boot hill" humorous epitaphs.

It looks like the temporary cemetery lasted long enough to appear in a children's "Sing Along" video.

It's all just another part of the Mansion's history.

Two New Items in the Old Pet Cemetery

For some reason it doesn't seem to have gotten much press, but a new tombstone appeared early in 2017 in the old pet cemetery, the one on the north side of the house, the one you don't see unless you ask to see it or are making use of the disability entrance/exit.

It's Kai, and we're told he has "gone to a betta place." Betta are betta known as "Siamese fighting fish," but our Kai looks less like one of those and more like a koi. If so, the joke may be that poor Kai the koi was done in by an SFF, and after having been eaten is now indeed in a "betta place." That's obscure, macabre, and witty enough to meet minimum LF standards, and besides, actual graves for pet fish are exactly the example we've previously used to illustrate the sort of Victorian eccentricity that may possibly be cited in order to justify pet cemeteries at the HM (although if I had my druthers I'd still get rid of them).

The other item is Penny the Elephant, added in 2016. This one has attracted notice,

and you may recall that we updated the old Pet Cemeteries post accordingly.

pic by Noah Korda on Facebook

pic by Noah Korda on Facebook

What I didn't know at the time is that Penny already has a history at the park, and we may be seeing here part of a new "megatheme" scheme at work, tying various attractions together in a common backstory. So long as it remains obscure and in the background, that's fine, but noisy, crudely imposed megathemeing is something we have denounced elsewhere, in one of LF's most popular posts, matter of fact.

For the following, I am heavily indebted to Dave DeCaro's splendid site and especially to Chuck, who left the following comment there:I just dug into the history of the elephant and turned up this snippet, purportedly from the Disneyland Line cast member publication from this past June:

"With the recent refurbishment of the world-famous Jungle Cruise, you may have noticed the addition of a familiar face-- or shall we say trunk?-- keeping watch above Tropical Imports in Adventureland. The blue acrylic elephant is new to the jungle, but it's no stranger to Disneyland park.

The unpretentious pachyderm was originally created in the early 1990s for Disneyland Paris, but never made its way across the Atlantic. Instead, in 1993, it found a home here on Main Street, U.S.A.-- first at the Penny Arcade (where it became known as "Penny"), and most recently in the overflow seating area for the adjacent Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlor."

Despite their best efforts, Imagineers couldn't find a spot for the elephant when both locations were remodeled in 2012. And the statue was placed in storage. That is, until the refurbishment of Tropical Imports presented the perfect perch, where 'Penny' is once again delighting eagle-eyed Guests."

Here's Penny in both locations:

So . . . who would want to tie the Haunted Mansion and the Jungle Cruise together? Perhaps we are dealing here with the Imagineering team that wants you to see the S.E.A. everywhere you look. It's a fascinating phenomenon, but I don't want to steal Freddy Martin's thunder, so read all about it HERE. After that, come back and ponder the enigma of Penny the Elephant. And let the conspiracy theories begin!

10 comments:

Thanks for the fun post and congrats on the 2 million views! Does anyone know if the Elephant grave doubles to disguise some industrial equipment? It looks like a vent on the one side which is a clever idea.

Very interesting as usual! Kinda wish there was some way to get all the epitaphs on the temporary Front Yard Cemetary, though. Also, was there any connection between those contest-real-names-tombstones and the "Jay — Legal Clerk — Forever Buried In His Work" one?

HBG2.....wow. I moved to UT 4 years ago and haven't been a pass holder for over 6 years, but man oh man, do I miss MiceChat. I am jedimyndtryx, MiceChat's resident DJ. I haven't logged on to that account in over 6-7 years. I ran across Defunctland on YouTube where they show old attractions and history of certain old rides. It made me think of old MiceChat, where we would talk endlessly about everything Haunted Mansion and this and that. It makes me smile. Makes me think of all the wonderful years I spent at the park every week with my wife and kids. My son is in college now, and my daughter is a sophomore. They share my love for the park, but being so far we go maybe once every two years. I'm in shock to see the Mansion threads still there, and wow, a blog! The Mansion holds such a special place in my heart, and I am fascinated by the history. Thank you HBG2 for all these wonderful years of long forgotten effects, and a huge congratulations for the millions of visitors.

This is a very entertaining blog; it is fascinating to see the many influences which formed the Haunted Mansion. On the subject of Disneyland's various graveyards, I am intrigued by a cemetery which might have been. In Sam McKim's spectacular illustration of the entire Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, featured in the souvenir magazine of the ride, there is depicted in the Blue Bayou a large oak tree with two smoking pistols at the base. Surrounding are half a dozen tombstones. This references the Dueling Oaks, an actuality of romantic old New Orleans, where gentlemen defended their honor. Since almost every other detail in McKim's extravaganza made it into the finished attraction, the Blue Bayou cemetery may have been an idea planned for and discarded near opening, maybe because the designers knew the Haunted Mansion was waiting in the wings.

The Lon Chaney influence on Marc Davis may include "The Phantom of the Opera"; a still of Chaney in the unmasking scene is a ringer for one of the Mansion's much loved pop-up ghoulies, the walrus-faced one, also seen on the first page of the Story and Song album.